Catfish final paper

           

Catfish is just like a mirror. On one side of the mirror we see ourselves for who we are. On the other side of the mirror we can change ourselves into what we want ourselves to be, even what others want to interpret us as, hiding the reality from each other.
         The movie Catfish was directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman at the studio Rogue Pictures. It was released September 17, 2010. The main actors in this documentary are Nev Schulman, Ariel Schulman, Henry Joost, Angela Wesselman-Pierce.

Nev Schulman is a photographer who one day received a surprising e-mail message from an eight year old girl named Abby. Abby saw one of Nev’s photos in the newspaper which inspired her. She asked Nev if she could paint the photograph. Nev agreed, and a little while later he received the painting in the mail. He was shocked by how much the painting looked like the photograph. At one point Nev tried to contact Abby's family, but ended up in contact with Megan, Abby's 19-year-old sister. After 8 months of an online relationship Nev decided he wanted to meet Megan in person to see if their connection was real. When Nev traveled to Michigan to meet her, Nev learned that Abby and Megan's family were not at all what he expected them to be.

Facebook is full of people who are totally different then they say they are. A Facebook page contains nothing but a picture, short biography, and likes and dislikes. It’s easy to create a fake personality and make it become who you actually want to be. Angela did exactly that. She put a lot of time and effort into creating a fake life that seemed so real to Nev. Angela created online profiles for at least 21 relatives and friends to create Megan's social circle. Later on after the documentary Angela told the world.. "I have been diagnosed as schizophrenic, But ... I don't think I have multiple personalities in normal life, really. I just think I have the ability to create a lot of illusions for people." She claimed she had no problem navigating such a complex fantasy world, and she had become obbsessed with her fake life.

I would definitely recommend this documentary. It was a lot better than I thought it would be. I would recommend it more to the adult audience though because there are some parts that children wouldn’t understand, and are innapropriate for a younger audience. I think Catfish did a great job showing how careful you have to be when it comes to everything online, especially when getting to know someone. People can be totally different then they say they are, and then not realize it until you meet them.

I edited Abby Sterns Paper.

Catfish day 3

I can't believe how this all turned out. The fact that Megan is NOT EVEN REAL at all. which she didnt even admit to. She had 2 phones one for "Megan" and one for her. The family is pretty much crazy i guess you could say. Angela is creepy, especially when Nev asks her to talk as "megan". We dont really know what Vince knows and doesnt know, hes not really all there. Angela was having a facebook affair basically with Nev for 9 months. Angela feels like she is trapped, she has two severly disabled children with a man who has some problems of her own. The two disabled children came from Vince from a previous marriage. Abby got confused a lot when Nev and his crew asked questions about the whole situation. People believe that Angela might have either Shizophrenia or Multiple personality disorder, which seems like it could be true. Angela disabled her mulitiple facebook profiles and finally made her own with her own pictures. and she started her own website to promote her art. Angela basically became famous from the documentary, even though shes pretty much crazy and everyone knows it now.

Catfish 2

Today was shocking how much was reveiled. Once they arrived in town they visited "Megans" farm there was no one there. So he decieded to go to Angela's house to find out who these people really are. Angela is deffinitly not what Nev thought he thought she looked like. Abby doesn't even do the paintings and doesnt really even know Nev that well. Angela was sexting Nev all along and pretending to be Megan and other people. Everything is made up by Angela. Nev found out that Megan has been in inpatient care for 4 months and Abby barely knows her sister.

Catfish

I think that this documentary is better than i thought, it was really cool how close he got with people he had never met. I think that it was really strange when they found out that Megan was just posting other peoples songs on facebook and calling them her own. Also i think that its really strange that whenever Nev wants to talk to Abby that Abby's mom says she is too tired or sleeping. Its also funny how Abby was supposably opening up her own 30,000 dollar gallery when it had been vacant for 4 years so that was a lie also. I keep wondering like who he is really talking to, is he talking to completely different people then he thinks he is? If abby is not real, who is painting all those paintings. Why doesnt Nev skype with them, i wonder if they would make up an excuse not to skype. If abby isnt real then who is the girl in all those pictures? I think that i would be mad if i were Nev, because he has been spending 8 months talking to people who are pretending to be someone they are not. Nev basically fell in love with Megan over these 8 months.. id be really angry if i found out some of this stuff. Who is he really talking to!??!?!

Photoshop Project

Poetry

http://www.poetfreak.com/poet/alipeterson